The Category of «Humanity» : Language as a Reflection of the Opposition between the Natural Sphere and the Human Sphere

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The article analyses the way in which human languages classify reality into two large categories: the natural sphere and the human sphere. Thus, a given language will use the resources of its different linguistic levels (phonetic-phonological, morphological, syntactic, and lexical) to configure the references of reality and classify them based on what the speaker considers as belonging to the sphere of human society or the sphere of nature, outwith the human community. The same object, animal, phenomenon, or event may be treated (and evaluated) differently depending on whether the speakers of a given language consider it as belonging to the human sphere or the natural sphere.